As labor organizers find traction in their efforts to penetrate the restaurant business, a veteran official of foodservice’s two largest unions has been confirmed as a director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that regulates unionization efforts.
David Prouty joins the board from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where he served as general counsel of the union’s New York City chapter. He has also been the general counsel of Unite Here, with a 9-year stint as a legal officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association sandwiched in between.
SEIU has about 175,000 members and has been active in pushing for higher wages. It is an ally and benefactor of both Fight For $15 and a Union, the advocacy group demanding a living wage for restaurant workers, and One Fair Wage, a separate group lobbying for discontinuing the tip credit used by full-service restaurants.
“Throughout my career, I’ve advocated for a variety of workers—from clothing and textile workers to baseball players, to property service workers—who have joined together to improve their workplaces,” Prouty said in a statement. “I am a firm believer in the rights the NLRA affords workers, and as a member, I will diligently uphold the Act.”
He was referring to the National Labor Relations Act, the Depression Era legislation that created the NLRB and set protections for workers looking to organize.
The NLRB is a quasi-judicial panel of five directors. It has the power to set election votes, certify results and otherwise supervise organization efforts. The directors are nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. Prouty was nominated by President Biden.
The board cleared the way for Colectivo Coffee, a 20-unit café chain, to be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. With 440 employees, Colectivo is widely believed to be the largest café chain and one of the largest restaurant operators to face collective bargaining within its employment ranks.
Earlier this year, the employees of a single Portland, Ore., unit of Voodoo Doughnuts voted on whether to be represented in contract negotiations by an affiliate of the Industrial Workers of the World. The balloting resulted in a tie, as had an April vote by Colectivo workers. Pro-union employees of the coffee roaster prevailed last week when the NLRB reinstated several ballots that had initially been disqualified.
The board has drawn fire from restaurant franchisors in recent years by deciding that the brand owners should be regarded as joint employers of franchisees’ staffs and hence culpable for licensees’ of labor regulations. Unions support that interpretation because it would help in mustering outrage against a big corporation such as McDonald’s Corp. and ease the way for organizing the whole system. Otherwise, organizing that or any other chain could entail advancing franchisee by franchisee.
President Biden has repeatedly pledged his support for unions and the collective representation of more workers, making it a key part of his Build Back Better agenda. He contends that more widespread unionization would lift more working-class individuals into the middle class.
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